


Brown

by curiumKingyo



Series: Color Book [3]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Athene Noctua Verse, Chocolate, M/M, Monochromy, wing!Hermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-13 22:21:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1242703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiumKingyo/pseuds/curiumKingyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newton buys chocolate in a post-Valentine's sale. It seems like a good opportunity to teach Hermann "brown".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pickleplum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/gifts).



> As always, this belongs to the [Athene Noctua](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1118037/chapters/2252127) verse, by [pickleplum](http://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/pseuds/pickleplum).
> 
> The idea for this one came up after I read [this ask](http://pickle-plum.tumblr.com/post/77857449691/so-i-know-birds-cant-have-chocolate-so-im-gonna) on plum's tumblr. I asked plum about the quasi-kiss and was delighted when she allowed me to write it.
> 
> If anyone is wondering, [this is the origami](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FgsIkt_4M9Y/SfMWo8q0aOI/AAAAAAAAAsw/Ej0Oy1kLlB8/s400/Gecko0.JPG) Hermann was making when Newt arrived :)

It's been years since the last time Newton celebrated Valentine's properly. In the first years of K-War he managed to go to pubs and hook with someone nice but it was a long time ago. With the recurrent attacks and ever increasing pile of work to do he had no time left to this kind of thing. Not to mention he simply wasn't in the mood to celebrate love and happiness.

However, there was a thing he appreciated about the holiday, and that was: post-Valentine's chocolate sales. Understandably, chocolate was one of the things that got hard to find during the war. Hard to find and not quite as afordable as it was before it. But in Valentine's it could be found in almost any market or store, and in the day after it would be abundant and much cheaper.

This year he felt like celebrating. The Breach was closed and the future seemed brightest then ever, specially with someone worth sharing it with. With the convoluted end of the war and their status as "resistance" he was low on funds, so he waited for February the 15th to go shopping. He spent the entire afternoon searching and bargaining but by the begining of the night he was heading back to the Shatterdome with a pile of heart-shaped boxes under his arm.

He gave one to Mako and Raleigh, causing the young couple to blush and thank him awkwardly. It was mostly pleasant to see Mako, usually so composed, actually blushing. Tendo stole one, but he didn't care since it was meant for the tech anyway. He also gave one to Marshall Hansen, albeit he was sure the man wouldn't eat any of it. With three boxes still under his arm, he went back to Hermann's room.

Hermann was sitting at the desk, curved over it looking very concentrated. "Hi, Hermann." He greeted, placing two boxes over a tall pile of books and hiding the third behind his back. "What are you doing?" He got closer and saw that from all the many things Hermann could do, he was doing origami.

"The printer got jammed and I had to reprint some pages of my latest report. I didn't want the paper to go wasted so I decided to do this..." He turned and showed him a small origami newt, white and covered in numbers and smudges of ink.

"Wow, dude! This is so cool!" Newton bend forward, looking at the cute sculpture. "I forgot you were so good at this."

Hermann smiled, his wings fluttering pleasantly. "It's been years since the last time I did it, I got the paper all crumpled before I got it right."

"It is still awesome!" Newton smiled down at him, appreciating the smile he got back. He straightened up and grinned, pulling the box from behind his back. "Quite as cool as what I got for you!"

Hermann lifted his eyebrows and took the lid off the box. Newt could barely contain his smile but, much to his disappointment, Hermann only frowned when he saw the contents of the box. "And you call yourself a biologist, Newton..." Hermann said, looking up at the other man. The look of hurtful confusion he found there made his heart sink. "Chocolate makes me sick, Newton... Bird, you know?" He looks down at the pretty chocolates lined up inside the box and feels really bad about it. Newt wanted to make him feel good, wanted to do something nice for him and he rebuffed it with absolutely no ceremony. But at this age he simply knew better than to stuff his face with candy.

Newton closed the box silently and went to the bed, sitting on the edge and poking at the pink cardboard on his lap. Feeling guiltier than he could expect, Hermann stood up and limped across the room, wings extended to help him keep balanced. He sat by Newt's side and gently put the paper newt over the chocolate box. The shorter man pushed it slowly across the lid, making little noises as the origami moved over the box.

Finally, Newt took the paper animal and put it on his breast pocket and opened the chocolate box. "Would you mind if I ate all of these?" He asked, running his fingertip over the plastic holding the candies. "They are still kinda yours I guess..."

Hermann didn't answered, but he picked one of the chocolates and pressed it against Newt's closed lips. "Chocolate always cheers you up." He said and Newt opened his mouth carefully. He slid the candy into the other man's mouth where it immediately began to melt. Newt savored the thick sweetness with half closed eyes. Hermann was right, chocolate did always made him feel better; yet now he wasn't sure if the warm feeling in his chest was due to the chocolate, to Hermann's behavior of to the fact that his long finger was still resting against Newt's lips.

"You know, I believe I could have one without any harm." Hermann said, dropping his hand and looking at the candies still resting inside the heart shaped box. "Chose one for me, please."

Newt swallowed audibly and stared at Hermann for a few seconds before looking down to study the chocolates. He picked one and brought it closer. "This one... It is the same color of your hair."

Hermann snorted. "Aren't they all brown?"

Then it was Newt's time to snort. "Don't be so simplistic, Hermann. There are lots of different shades of brown and I _know_ you can tell it." Hermann actually looked like a child being told off and Newt shouldn't find that cute. But he kinda did. "This one, is the same color of your hair." Newt said once more. "It is dark, but not in a black-y way. It is just like really dense brown, and it actually is bitter chocolate. You can tell by the color bu also because of the smell." He held it near Hermann's face and he sniffed at it and indeed it smelled stronger than regular milk chocolate. Then Newt brought it closer to his own lips and ate it. "This is too strong for you, might make you sick even being this small."

Hermann frowned and that brought a smile to Newt's lips. After he swallowed, the biologist took another chocolate from the box. "This is the color of your eyes." He put the candy near Hermann's temple as if comparing it to the mathematician's eyes. "It is not as dark as the other one, but it is a dense color too. But more on the red side. I believe it is called chestnut brown." He sniffed at it and offered the candy for Hermann to do the same. "It would be a good choice for you, but... " He popped it into his mouth with a mischievous smile. "It is my favorite so I'm not sharing it."

Hermann was split between being annoyed and charmed by his child like behavior. Something in his easy smile and shiny eyes hit hard on Hermann's heart, causing his own smile to bloom effortlessly. Newton's hand was hovering over the remaining pieced of chocolate, thoughfully considering his next choice. When he finally picked one he studied it a little longer, throwing side glances at Hermann every few seconds.

"Yes." He finally said. "This one is the exact shade of your wings." His voice was soft and filled with wonder and Hermann briefly questioned if it would wear off anytime. He didn't want it to, he wanted to be target of those wonder filled glances and words forever.

Said wings twitched in curiosity as he leaned forward. "How is it?"

Newt put the candy up and looked at it against the white artificial light of the room. "It is the warmest shade of brown in the box. It is soft and velvety and has a yellow undertone." He doesn't see but feel Hermann's pinky drawing a small smile over his chest. He smiled fondly at the chocolate before bringing it down. " By the weight I can say this one is filled. I wonder what with..." He bit half of the candy and soft caramel invaded his mouth, mixing with the hard chocolate perfectly. He pulled the half bitten treat away and a string of caramel extended for a few inches before breaking and clinging to the corner of his lips.

Driven by an instinct that he couldn't quite name yet, Hermann gently cupped his cheek. "This is the one I want." He said and pressed his lips to the corner of Newt's tasting the chocolate in his breath and the caramel on his skin. It lasted only for a second and when it ended Newton was deeply glad that Hermann couldn't see the boiling red rising to his cheeks.

"We... we should save the rest for latter." Newt finally squeaked, hastily closing the box just to have something to do with his eyes and hands. Hermann smiled fondly as he awkwardly stood up and picked the other boxes and put them away over the desk. He stayed there, poking on the jammed pages of Hermann's report and failed attempts at origami just to busy himself while his heart was still racing.

Hermann looked down and found the other half of the caramel filled candy. He picked it and delicately put it inside his mouth. He wasn't used to the taste of it anymore but he could appreciate it. Specially when the taste was now inextricably linked with his brown memories of cocoa filled lips.


End file.
